Possessions

In basketball, a Possession is simply the period of play between when one team gains control of the ball and when the other team gains control of the ball. They are also perhaps the key tenet for modern basketball analysts in their analysis of the game. During a single game, both teams have approximately the same number of possessions, because they alternate possession. (A team can have slightly more if it begins and ends a quarter or half with possession.) However, over the course of the season, teams play at very different paces, which can dramatically color their Points Scored and Points Allowed Per Game. Therefore, these analysts favor use of Points Scored per 100 possessions and Points Allowed per 100 possessions. Possessions are usually estimated by the following formula:

Possessions = FGA − ORb + TO + (.44 * FTA)

The .44 accounts for the fact that when a player scores a basket and is fouled, they shoot a free throw, which is not a possession. This is also true of flagrant fouls and technical fouls, while three free throws make up one possession when a player is fouled shooting a 3-pointer. It should also be noted that when analyzing College Basketball, APBRmetricians have used .475 as the free-throw multiplier, since college hoops' rules about the team foul limit differ from those in the NBA. Offensive rebounds are subtracted because grabbing an offensive rebound simply extends the original possession, rather than creating a new possession. If offensive rebounds were not subtracted in this manner, opposing teams would not necessarily have the same number of possessions in a game.